


Beneath the Mask

by SailorChibi



Series: Iron Man is a little [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Age Play, Angst with a Happy Ending, Baby Tony, Carrying, Comforting, Cribs, Crying, Daddy Steve, Diapers, Domestic Avengers, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hugging, Identity Reveal, Infantilism, Little Headspace, Mild Angst, Miscommunication, Misunderstandings, Mommy Pepper, Non-Sexual Age Play, Pacifiers, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Hugging, Protective Pepper Potts, Protective Steve Rogers, Secret Identities, Secret Identity Reveal, Team as Family, Tony Stark Gets a Hug, Tony Stark Has Self-Esteem Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, alternate universe - littles are known, bottles, non-sexual infantilism, the world does not know tony stark is iron man, thumb sucking, tony doesn't want them to know, tony stark is the apple of the avengers' eye
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2019-01-11
Packaged: 2019-08-27 21:40:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16710532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorChibi/pseuds/SailorChibi
Summary: The Avengers know that Tony Stark is a Little, and that he is also their hard-working, absurdly generous benefactor.What they don't know is that Tony is also Iron Man.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the other half of the idea I had, where the Avengers know Tony is a Little but don't know he's Iron Man and then find out.

When the Avengers alarm goes off, it’s always loud and piercing. Tony designed it that way on purpose, because he needed to make sure that the alarm was audible everywhere in the Tower and that it was dissimilar enough to any other alarms that no one would mistake it. The alarm is also accompanied by flashing red lights, because sometimes Clint’s hearing aids make his ears hurt.

Today, Tony has regrets. They’re just getting to the good part of the movie. The popcorn and hot chocolate is long gone. Natasha, Bruce and Clint are all cuddled together on the couch. Thor is sprawled in the big chair. Tony is on the other couch, Steve on one side and Pepper on the other. He’s leaning against Pepper with his feet in Steve’s lap; Steve’s big hands massage his feet and lower legs slowly, while Pepper occasionally pauses between scribbles to run her hand over Tony’s head.

And then the alarm goes off.

“Aw, man!” Clint whines, raising his voice to be heard. “This blows. Can’t evil take a day off?”

“Apparently not,” Natasha says with a sigh. She unwinds his arms from around Bruce’s neck and struggles out from beneath Clint, nearly dumping Clint on the floor.

“I’ll contact Iron Man and tell him to meet us at the scene,” Bruce volunteers.

Steve gets up, gently setting Tony’s feet on the couch, and stoops to press a kiss to Tony’s forehead. “Be good, baby boy. Daddy won’t be gone too long.” He squeezes Pepper’s shoulder as she wishes them all luck and then heads out of the living room at a run.

“I’m sleepy,” Tony says the moment they’re gone.

“I guess it is time for your nap,” Pepper says, shuffling her papers. Tony’s pretty sure that she and the others think that the Avengers leaving for a mission upsets him. They think that he always gets ‘tired’ as soon as they go because he wants to go sit in his crib and pretend nothing is happening rather than watch live updates with Pepper. It kind of sucks that they think of him as the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand, but Tony’s dealt with worse insults to his reputation.

It’s a given when you’re Tony Stark.

He slides off the couch and takes Pepper’s hand, letting her lead the way into the elevator. JARVIS takes them up to the nursery without being asked. Normally Tony fusses about going down for naps, but today he goes quietly into his crib and cuddles up to his blanky and teddy bear. Pepper checks his diaper, declares him dry, and brushes a kiss over his cheek. Then she slips out of the room.

Immediately, Tony sits up. “Call up the hologram, J,” he says, all business as he nimbly clambers over the side of the crib. His feet hit the ground and he glances over his shoulder in time to see a hologram flicker into life behind him. It looks like him, except it’s curled up on its side like it’s asleep.

Tony nods, satisfied, and hurries over to the door. At one time, he felt guilty about deceiving Pepper, Steve and the rest of the Avengers like this. But those days are long gone. He has to do this. The Avengers need Iron Man, but they don’t need Tony Stark. They need Tony’s money, and they keep Tony around when he’s in his headspace because he’s cute and he’s been told Littles are great stress relief, but they don’t need _him_. He’s made his peace with that.

He backtracks to the elevator and heads down to the workshop. JARVIS has the armor waiting for him. Tony steps into it, smiling as it assembles flawlessly around him. He always feels more in control when he’s wearing the armor. He activates the thrusters and flies straight up; at the very last second, just as the landing platform on the roof slides open, he also activates the invisibility shield. It’ll only last for ninety seconds, but it’s long enough to insure that no enterprising journalists get a shot of Iron Man leaving Avengers Tower when Tony doesn’t want them to.

After all, everyone believes that Iron Man is just his bodyguard. They think he lives in a non-descript apartment somewhere in Manhattan and refused a place in the Tower for the purposes of keeping his identity secret. No one knows who he is, not even Pepper. Life is just easier that way. He can be the Avengers’ Little, CEO Tony Stark, and Iron Man all at the same time. Juggling three separate parts of himself with no one the wiser isn’t easy, but it’s necessary when he doesn’t want to give up on any of them.

“Sir,” JARVIS says into Tony’s ear, “Captain Rogers is waiting to be patched through.”

“Go ahead,” Tony says. He knows that the voice modulator will subtly alter his voice, making it so that not even Steve’s advanced hearing will pick up on Tony’s voice. So he doesn’t hesitate to say, “Cap? It’s me. I’ve been alerted to the situation and I’m making my way there now.”

“Iron Man, glad to hear you’re available,” Steve says. “We’re in Central Park.”

“On my way,” Tony says, cutting the communication off. JARVIS will let him know if he’s needed. He increases his speed, flying towards Central Park as fast as he can.

As he approaches, he catches a glimpse of a purplish black cloud hanging low over the park. The Avengers are standing below it, staring up at the cloud with a variety of baffled expressions. Tony does a quick scan as he lands, but finds nothing dangerous in the cloud. It’s just… a cloud. A really low hanging, weirdly colored, cloud that appears to be made out of water.

“What have we got?” Tony asks.

“We were hoping you could tell us,” says Black Widow, folding her arms.

“My scans aren’t telling me much,” Tony admits. “Science experiment gone wrong?”

“It’s _purple_ ,” says Bruce.

“Food coloring?” Tony offers.

“I’m betting on hair dye,” says Clint. He offers a fist to Tony. Tony gently bumps it with his own fist, mindful as always of the fact that Clint’s human hand is way more fragile than a gold titanium alloy hand.

“Thor, could you like… blow it away?” Steve says after a considerable pause.

“What say you, Man of Iron?” Thor asks.

Tony shrugs, the movement barely telegraphed through the armor. “Go for it. Can’t hurt.”

He quickly comes to regret his flippant statement, as blowing the cloud away with the force Mjolnir reveals the surprise waiting inside. Mind you, Tony is using the term ‘surprise’ very loosely. He’s not exactly shocked to see the gigantic gun that shoots green lasers that melt things waiting inside the cloud, though he is extraordinarily curious to know how they blocked it from his sensors.

The Avengers move slowly into action. Tony takes to the sky to join Thor, while Steve, Natasha, Clint and Bruce scatter. Bruce backs off, waiting to see if he’ll be needed, while Steve twists around to throw his shield at the gun. It glosses off the top, barely leaving a scratch, and Tony’s jaw tightens. JARVIS is running scans, but whatever was keeping him from detecting the gun before is still active and his scans are telling him nothing.

So, he decides to hit it with a good old repulsor blast and swings his arms forward, firing off a jet of light. At the same time, Thor throws Mjolnir. Tony watches, eyes narrowed, as his blast hits first, followed by the hammer. It leaves a small dent, but not much of one, which tells him this is likely alien equipment they’re working with. No way could something manmade stand up to Mjolnir. Tony’s tried.

“Maybe try hitting it with a blast of lightning?” Tony suggests as Thor twitches his fingers, calling Mjolnir back to him.

Thor grins. “That was my way of thinking as well. Clear!” he calls, and all of the Avengers on the ground promptly retreat a good ten feet. Tony follows, because he’s learned it doesn’t always bode well for the arc reactor to be in close proximity to Thor and lightning.

Thor begins to swing Mjolnir rapidly as storm clouds gather overhead. Lightning crackles from cloud to cloud. The hair on the back of Tony’s neck stands up, though he’s not sure whether it’s because of the lightning or because of the intensity in Thor’s eyes. All he know is that he would not want to be the person that Thor looks at like that. He tenses as, on his last swing, Thor thrusts Mjolnir into the air. Thunder rumbles as all of the lightning in the clouds strikes Mjolnir, lighting the hammer up.

With a grunt, Thor leaps towards the gun, brings his hand back, and slams Mjolnir down on top of it. There’s a few seconds where everyone freezes, and Tony starts to think that maybe this was a stupid plan. But then the gun emits a high-pitched wailing nose that makes him wince, and it literally crumbles apart. Several chunks of alien metal hit the ground, leaving Thor standing on top, hands on his hips and a satisfied smirk on his face.

“Great job, Thor!” Steve calls from a distance. 

Tony surveys the area below them and realizes he’s going to be needed here to survey the clean-up. If he leaves, then SHIELD will be sneaky and make off with pieces of the gun and Tony can’t have that. Iron Man, working on ‘Mr. Stark’s behalf as the primary benefactor of the Avengers’, worked out a deal with SHIELD that Tony gets first crack at any weird alien things that come from their battles.

“JARVIS,” Tony says quietly, “would you please flag an incident that needs my attention immediately?”

“Yes sir,” JARVIS says; he’s probably had something on the backburner since the moment the gun was revealed. His A.I. is so clever.

He hangs placidly in the air while JARVIS does his thing, and hears the rapid beeping that signifies something urgent has popped up. Pepper will be getting the same notification. JARVIS is so good now at picking out things that requires Tony’s attention, but not hers. And everyone knows that, while Tony doesn’t mind having people around when he’s easing into his Little headspace, he hates having people around when he’s coming out of it. So Pepper won’t go near the nursery, and will assume Tony’s gotten up, dressed and left the Tower, while the hologram of Tony in the crib just quietly disappears.

It’s a system that works, no matter how exhausting it can be to keep up the charade, and Tony’s frankly proud of it. He’ll have several hours now where no one will expect Tony Stark to be anywhere, which means he can stay here as Iron Man to supervise. When he’s finished he’ll swing by Iron Man’s apartment (rented under the pseudonym of Edward Carter), which is really just a place where Tony keeps spare changes of clothes, and change into a suit before he returns to the Tower.

He lands on the ground as Steve approaches and says, “Hey Cap. I’m going to stick around and make sure all of this alien crap ends back where it’s supposed to be. I’ve contacted Mr. Stark and he’s going to arrange for an S.I. truck to come by.”

“You talked to Tony?” Steve says, looking surprised. Of course he is. So far as Steve knows, Tony is back at the mansion sleeping peacefully.

“Yeah. You didn’t get the memo? Mr. Stark had something come up. He’s currently on his way to a meeting,” Tony says. He no longer feels any guilt for lying. This is just the way it has to be. Sure it would be nice if the Avengers could know who’s behind the Iron Man mask, but that’s never going to happen if Tony can help it.

Tony Stark may be a Little, but Iron Man can’t be. Not only does Tony have a heinous reputation that would instantly tank Iron Man as a good member of the Avengers, but no one would ever trust him to be able to do his job. He knows now that he shouldn’t have been so weak as to let things with Steve and Pepper and everyone else get this far, but he’s never been good at denying himself.

“Oh,” Steve says. Disappointment flickers briefly across his face before it’s smoothed out by a smile. “Thanks for letting me know. You need any help here?”

“Nope, I’ll be fine,” Tony says. He tries to limit how much time he spends with the team inside the mask, terrified he’ll accidentally refer to Steve as ‘Daddy’ or one of the others as aunt or uncle. He turns away, walking over to the nearest chunk of metal, and pretends that he doesn’t notice the way Steve stands there for a moment longer before leaving.

This is how it has to be.


	2. Chapter 2

By the time the clean-up is done, Tony is _exhausted_. It took much longer than anyone expected, after it turned out that the gun pieces melt every time they’re touched by the very material SHIELD makes their hazmat suits out of. That means new suits have to be brought in, which takes forever, and then extra care has to be given with each piece. Tony moves several himself, just to speed up the process.

He lives the crates in the hands of several loyal S.I. employees and flies towards Iron Man’s apartment. He tries not to use the balcony as a general rule of thumb, but today he’s got no choice: he’s wearing a wet diaper and a onesie beneath the armor, and he’s not in the mood to be swarmed by paparazzi looking for a photo of an unkempt Tony Stark. He alights gently on the balcony and clunks inside.

JARVIS peels the armor off him without being asked. Tony steps out with a relieved sigh, rubbing at his eyes. He’ll have to call for a car to take him back to the Tower. The armor will remain here until it’s dark, at which point JARVIS will fly it back to the Tower with no one the wiser. Anyone seeing it will just think that Iron Man has come for a tune-up, since everyone knows that Tony doesn’t keep typical work hours.

“I’m gonna take a shower, J,” Tony says through a yawn. “Run a diagnostic, would you?”

“Yes Sir, and may I add that you still need to contact the San Fransciso office.”

Tony stops short. “Wait, that was real?”

“I’m afraid so.”

Shit. Tony seriously contemplates calling the office first, but decides a shower is a must. He strips down and hops in the shower, sighing as the hot water runs over his hair and down his back. It’s no bath time with Steve, that’s for sure, but frankly it just feels amazing to get clean. He may have designed the armor to be as comfortable as possible, but that doesn’t mean it can’t get stifling after several hours of wearing it.

He climbs out and grabs a towel, glancing in the mirror, mouth pursing as he takes in the fresh bruises that curls up over his right shoulder and down his arm, courtesy of a clumsy SHIELD agent who literally dropped a crate full of alien gun pieces. Tony caught it, but the impact had jostled him badly enough for bruises. Unless he can think of a good excuse, he’ll have to keep his distance from the team until the bruises have time to heal enough that no one will ask questions.

It's already been three weeks since Tony last got to be in his little headspace, but that’s fine. It’s cool. He touches the bruising gingerly, probing to see how much it hurts, and ponders how much Pepper, Steve and Bruce will freak out if he engineers an accident in the workshop to cover them up. He doesn’t like to use that excuse too often, though, usually saving it for when he’s broken a bone.

As he gets dressed, Tony places a call to San Francisco. What he hears doesn’t please him. JARVIS wasn’t kidding; they need him there in person. He ends up hauling on a suit, a tailored three piece this time, and donning the photostatic veil he keeps on hand at all time – thank you JARVIS. It was easy to build one from scratch once Tony had the information he needed from SHIELD’s servers. This particular photostatic veil is of a caucasian man with light brown hair and green eyes and pale skin. 

Neighbors see Edward Carter leaving the apartment building and calling a cab. He ditches the cab several streets over, finds a quiet place to peel off the photostatic veil and the gloves he wears to cover his hands, and tucks it all into his briefcase. Then he walks to the nearest coffee shop, one that’s conveniently located close enough to the Tower that no one would wonder, and calls for a car to take him to the airport.

Tony ends up spending a full week in San Francisco, trying to smooth out ruffled feathers and put out fires. He’s down there so long that Pepper ends up flying down to join him and help. The sight of her strutting into the board room, dressed to the nines in heels and an expensive suit and with her hair slicked back into a bun, makes Tony weak at the knees from relief. 

“What,” Pepper snarls quietly, “is going on here?” 

The room quiets and Tony doesn’t bother to hide a smug grin. People listen to him because they have to. They listen to Pepper because they _have_ to. Tony’s their boss. Pepper just doesn’t give them a choice. Whereas Tony has had to learn how to command an audience, it comes to Pepper naturally. Maybe it’s because she’s a caregiver and has a serious ‘Mom’ voice, or maybe it’s just because she’s got her own version of the infamous murder strut down pat. Whatever the reason, Tony thoroughly enjoys seeing balding, middle-aged business man squirming in their seats before Pepper Potts.

“You see, the thing is, Ms. Potts,” one unwitting victim begins, and Pepper turns on him with a blazing set of eyes. The guy stutters off into silence beneath the weight of her gaze. 

Within twenty minutes, Pepper’s put the fear of god into them and no one is saying a word. Tony tosses back the rest of his coffee and smiles happily as the meeting breaks up for lunch. He wants nothing more than to sink down in front of her and rest his tired head on Pepper’s comfortable lap, but he knows better than to give into the urge when they’re at work.

“Idiots,” Pepper says, pushing the door shut. She doesn’t slam it, but it’s damn close.

“Now Pep,” Tony says lightly.

“Don’t ‘now Pep’ me. You’ve been down here forever!” Pepper hisses. She’s wound up, stalking around the room like a caged tiger. “I thought this matter would’ve been cleared up five days ago. What’s taking so long?”

“Same old. People don’t believe what the numbers tell them,” Tony says. “They want the contract reworked. Then they’re not happy with how it’s reworked. Then they say that actually, they’ve decided they want a clause removed. I think our legal team is ready to break down into tears of frustration.”

“They’re not the only ones.” She stops in front of him and peers down with a concerned look. “You don’t look good, Tony.”

“Not here,” Tony says, voice soft with warning. 

Her lips compress into a thin line. “You’re wearing yourself down.”

Tony points a finger at her. “No.”

Pepper just stares at him, making it clear that she’s not going to drop this subject anytime soon. Tony decides to vacate the premises and gets to his feet, grabbing his briefcase. The fact that the room spins a little when he stands means nothing. He pulls away when Pepper reaches out to steady her, instead quickly walking over to the door. He pulls it open and stops short at the sight of Steve and Natasha.

“Uh, hi?” Steve says, making it sound like a question, with a sheepish smile.

“Nope,” Tony says, shouldering past them. He hears Natasha snort and has to bite down on his lip to hide the grin that wants to break out in response. He’s pretty sure that Natasha only came along because she finds it funny when Pepper and Steve get all smothery and Tony starts acting like an annoyed teenager as a result. It doesn’t happen very often, but sometimes – usually when Tony’s secret identity is at stake – they’re all a bit much.

“Tony!” Pepper calls after him.

“Tony’s busy!” Tony shouts over his shoulder, quickly whipping out his phone to check. He’s got two more meetings to attend this afternoon. They might go better with Pepper around, but they also might not. He’s contemplating whether he wants lunch or a quick nap more when the building shakes.

Outside, someone screams.

“Avengers assemble!” Steve yells somewhere behind him; it’s just him and Natasha, so far as Tony knows, but that’s never stopped Steve from being a dork.

Tony takes off running, not wanting to get caught up by Natasha or Steve. If he gets stuck in a room with other employees, he won’t be able to help. And that has happened before. He dodges a few people running in the opposite direction and ducks into the men’s bathroom. Quickly, he checks the stalls to make sure that no one else is around. Only when he’s sure he’s alone does he set the briefcase on the ground.

“JARVIS, it’s time,” Tony says, keying a code into the briefcase and finishing up with both a fingerprint and retinal scan. The briefcase unseals itself and swings open to reveal the innermost workings of an Iron Man armor. He thrusts his hands into the depths of the briefcase and lets it unfold around him. It’s not as good as the Iron Man armor he usually wears, but in a pinch it’ll do.

Today’s supervillain turns out to have a grudge against Stark Industries, and has been pushed over the edge by the realization that both Pepper Potts and Tony Stark are in town. Tony goes cold when he runs into the briefing room he and Pepper were just in and sees that it’s been destroyed. He follows the trail of destruction over to the window and peers out. His heart stops.

“Mommy,” he whispers to himself, staring up at the sky in horror. A man in red has Pepper by the waist. She’s got a gun pressed to her forehead. Pepper looks like she’s fighting to remain calm. Below them are Steve and Natasha, now clad in their uniforms. How the hell did this happen?

“Someone needs to pay for my pain!” the supervillain is yelling.

“And someone will. We’ll get you whatever you want. Just put Ms. Potts down,” Steve says, holding his hands up to show that he means no harm. It may look like a non-threatening position, but Tony knows otherwise. Steve can grab the shield on his back and whip it into the air before normal people even blink. But he won’t dare do anything that will put Pepper in danger.

“So you can push it under a rug and pretend that it doesn’t exist? I know what these people are like!” 

“if you tell us what happened, we might be able to resolve the situation,” says Steve.

“Resolve this!”

It’s like slow motion. Tony sees the guy’s grip loosening. A look of sheer terror flashes across Pepper’s face, breaking through her calm, and she shrieks as the guy _lets her go_ when she’s still a hundred feet in the air. Without hesitation, Tony screams her name and throws himself out the window after her. His throat burns as he plummets; the repulsors kick in, letting him fall faster, and he grabs her about ten feet from the ground.

“Oh my god,” Pepper gasps, crying, flinging her arms around the neck of the armor.

“It’s okay, you’re okay,” Tony babbles, barely aware of what he’s saying. He lands on the ground, his knees so weak that he probably would’ve fallen had it not been for the armor holding him up.

Pepper turns to look at him. Her eyes are wide and wet. “Tony?” she breathes, shocked.

Tony freezes. “W-what?!”

“You – you called me Mommy,” she says.

“What? No I –” Tony stops, suddenly realizing that she’s right. He hadn’t yelled ‘Pepper’ as she was falling. He’d yelled out ‘Mommy’. 

_Shit_.

“I – no, that’s not –” He stutters to a stop, seeing movement to his right. Steve is approaching them. Beyond him, Tony sees that Natasha has the supervillain on the ground and is cruelly wrenching the guy’s arms behind his back. The look on Steve’s face, somewhere between shock and confusion, lets Tony know that Steve heard it too.

“Tony?” Steve says once he’s close enough. “Baby, is that – is that really you?”

“I have to go,” Tony blurts out.

“Wait!” Pepper grabs his arm before he can run. He can’t feel her hands through the armor, but he freezes anyway. She’s so closed that if takes off right now, he’ll risk burning her with the repulsors. And he can’t do that. So he just stands there, heart racing with panic, and wonders how the hell he could’ve been so stupid.


	3. Chapter 3

The paramedics check Pepper over quickly while Steve and Tony wait nearby. Steve's hand rests lightly on the shoulder of the armor. Both of them watch worriedly as the paramedics take Pepper's blood pressure, listen to her heart, and do a whole bunch of other medical stuff that Tony doesn't really care about. His heart is _still_ racing and he's not sure he'll ever forget the image of Pepper falling through the air like that, but at the same time he almost hopes she'll have to go to the hospital. Which is a terrible thing to hope for, and Tony knows that, but it would give him some sorely needed time to think.

Unfortunately, lead paramedic sits back on her heels and smiles at Pepper. "You look okay to me, Ms. Potts, for someone who fell all that distance. You were very fortunate that Iron Man was there to catch you. You'll have some bruises, and you've got a slight concussion. You'll probably feel some tenderness through your shoulders and back over the next few days, so I recommend taking it easy. If you have any serious headaches or pain, I suggest you go to the Emergency Room. Otherwise, you can follow up with your own doctor in the next week."

"Thank you," Pepper says, standing up and dusting her suit off. She's missing both shoes and her hair has fallen out of her bun; Tony hasn't seen her look this dishevelled in years. Yet she holds herself together, striding back into the S.I. building and requesting the use of a personal conference room. Tony and Steve quietly follow.

They end up in the same boardroom as before. The coffee and drinks are even still there, and Pepper immediately walks over and pours herself a glass of orange juice. She sips from the glass with hands that tremble a little. Tony makes himself look away from her and has JARVIS perform his standard surveillance of the room, checking to be sure that there are no video cameras, hearing devices, or other bugs. As expected, JARVIS pronounces the room clean and Tony breathes a quiet sight of relief.

"Room's clear," he announces.

"Armor off," Steve says instantly. "Take it off."

Tony hesitates slightly. "No."

"Tony -"

"No."

"Tony, please. Can I at least see your face?" Pepper says, looking at him over her glass. She's impossible to say no to when her eyes are getting kind of red and her mouth is pinched together. Her lipstick is smeared, Tony belatedly notices. He's not sure if that happened when she was grabbed or when he caught her as she was falling. 

He lets the faceplate snap up.

"Jesus," Steve breathes, rocking back, like he didn't really believe it until now. "Has it been you this whole time?"

Tony nods reluctantly. "Yes. From day one."

"Oh my god. How did I not know?" Pepper says, setting her glass down. "Of course it's been you all along. You would never let anyone else pilot something that meant so much to you. I am a complete and total idiot."

"Pep. No, you're not. I went to a lot of trouble to hide this. You're not an idiot. I just thought of every eventuality. Except for this one." Tony frowns at himself. He could've accounted for the possibility of Pepper being kidnapped, but not his own reaction to it. Humans were always the unpredictable bit of everything. If only he'd kept his mouth shut, or thought to call her Pepper when she fell instead of Mommy...

"But why?" Steve says. "Why hide it?"

Tony looks between the two of them. "Are you kidding me? Seriously? You have to ask? I'm a Little, for one thing. You know damn well what people would say if they found out that Iron Man was a Little. Any credibility I've managed to scrounge together would be shot. It's been hard enough trying to get people to take me seriously when I'm Tony Stark. When Iron Man is out on the field, there's no time for people to second guess me or argue with me. A split second could mean the difference between life and death. It's easier when no one knows the classification of the guy behind the mask."

Pepper frowns. "You never told me you still have a hard time getting people to take you seriously."

"It's not that big a deal when I'm Tony Stark. I've grown up figuring out how to handle assholes," Tony says, crossing his arms. He doesn't look at Steve. Howard is still something of a sore subject for the two of them, mostly because Tony hates talking about his father. 

"I just..." Pepper sighs loudly and runs her hands through her hair.

"Is that the only reason?" Steve asks.

"No. My reputation is crap. No one is going to take well to the Merchant of Death being a member of the Avengers. It's bad enough we had all that shit with SHIELD and Hydra going around. It took the public forever to trust us after that happened. Even if, by some miracle, they were okay with Iron Man being a Little, our reputation would take a serious blow. Plus, the government would come down on me even harder than they already do. Just thinking about all the red tape and hoops I'd have to jump through to keep _my_ armor with _me_ where it belongs is enough to give me a headache. I spend enough time blocking those idiots from touching the armor without having to worry about what they'll do to me as the pilot."

"They couldn't do anything to you," Pepper says, but she doesn't sound convinced and Tony knows as well as she does that her words aren't really true. A lot of journalists made a big deal about the fact that Tony was the one who was backing the Avengers, and that he was building weapons for them. It didn't seem to matter that those weapons were made with the intention of keeping the peace as opposed to promoting destruction.

"Even putting aside all that, why didn't you tell the team?" Steve asks, looking somewhere between hurt and angry. "We know you better than that by now. We wouldn't care that you were piloting the armor, Tony."

"Okay, that is a bald-faced lie," Tony says, pointing a finger at Steve.

"No, it's not!"

"You're telling me that you'd be perfectly okay with your baby boy being out on the field with you?" Tony demands. "That you wouldn't panic every time an enemy came near me, or deliberately try to position in places where I wouldn't be in danger, or hover over me trying to protect me? That you wouldn't second-guess me about being in my headspace every time the Avengers alarm went off?"

Steve opens his mouth and then closes it. 

"Besides," Tony snorts, "you all think of me as a cute, sweet Little who isn't really capable of doing anything."

"That's not true," Steve says weakly.

Tony shoots him a look. "Yeah, it is. Normally I don't care, but I'm telling you right now that I will not stop being Iron Man. That is absolutely non-negotiable. I won't let anyone else pilot my suit. It was built for me and it would be dangerous to let anyone else do it, not to mention JARVIS wouldn't work with anyone else so it's a moot point to even think about it. And besides that, I like being Iron Man and it's important to me and I've put too much work into it now to let anyone stop me so I -"

"Tony, hey. Breathe," Pepper says, moving over to him. She sets one hand on the shoulderplate of the armor. "No one is going to try to stop you from being Iron Man, okay? I give you my word."

He focuses on her face and breathes until the tight, panicky feeling in his chest eases up somewhat. Only then does he continue. "Pep, I knew I could trust you. I knew you'd always have my back. But this was so far outside your comfort zone. I know how you feel when I put myself in danger. You've told me before how much it bothers you, and that's when you thought I was a civilian. I knew you would hate it if you found out that I was Iron Man."

Then, he looks up at Steve. "It was nothing personal, Steve. I hope you know that I mean that. At first, I didn't know anyone on the team well enough to want to tell you. We might have been teammates, but we were also strangers. By the time I knew you well enough to know that you would never tell SHIELD or anyone else about who I was, I wasn't sure how to tell you. And then you guys started taking care of me and there didn't seem to be any way to do it without you getting mad and -" He cuts himself off abruptly.

"Getting mad and what?" Pepper prompts gently.

"Leaving me," Tony mumbles.

"Oh, baby," she whispers.

At the same time, Steve says, "Leaving you? Tony, there's nothing in the world that could ever make us leave you."

Tony blinks, glancing back and forth between them in genuine surprise. "Wait, what?"

"Can you take the armor off now?" Pepper says.

He hesitates for a moment, searching their faces, but eventually concedes with a nod. The armor opens up without his prompting - trust JARVIS to have been listening to every word, the sneaky bugger - and Tony steps out. The instant his feet touch the ground, Pepper wraps her arms around him and pulls him into a hug. Tony swallows hard, wrapping his arms around her in turn. Then Steve hugs the both of them, his big arms easily encircling them. It's one of those moments that Tony both loves and cherishes, and it hits him all the more strongly because he kind of thought he might never have it again after Pepper and Steve figured it out. He has to blink back tears.

"We love you," Pepper whispers to him. "We love you _so much_. I'm disappointed that you thought you had to hide this from us, but I understand why you did it. You're right, I do hate it when you put yourself in danger. But not to the extent that I wouldn't want to know about something that is such a fundamental part of you."

Tony's throat burns. "I'm sorry for lying to you."

"I know you are," Pepper says, smoothing a hand over his hair.

"And Steve -"

"Shh," Steve murmurs. "Tony, Iron Man is one of the people I trust most on the field. I have to admit, it's probably going to take me a little while to get used to this. But I promise, I will figure out how to handle it. If being Iron Man matters that much to you, I would never dream of taking it away."

A wave of relief rolls through Tony, weakening his knees and making him grateful for their support. "You... you mean that?"

"Yes. But I also think we should tell the rest of the team about it."

Tony sighs. He's been expecting that. He just hasn't decided if he agrees with it yet. "I'll think about it."

"I think," Pepper says, "that we should go back to the hotel and just spend some time together. We've all had a stressful day and, as much as I'd like to go home, I really don't want to have to deal with a plane ride tonight."

"Okay," Tony says. 

"Uh, will you have to travel in the armor?" Steve asks, sounding slightly awkward, and Tony smiles a little.

"No. JARVIS can take control of it. That's how Iron Man and I have been in the same place." Tony frees his arms and taps at his wristband, letting JARVIS have full control of the armor. Both Pepper and Steve jump a little as the armor suddenly closes and straightens up. It nods at them and then stiffly walks over the window. It opens the glass and then leaps out, activating the thrusters before it falls very far.

"Of all the things I thought I wouldn't see today," Steve mutters, shaking his head with a wry smile, and then scoops Tony up. "Okay then, you have a date with a bottle. If that's alright."

"Yes please, Daddy," Tony says, meaning it with all of his heart as he relaxes into Steve's arms and looks down at Pepper's warm smile. He can't think of anything that he wants more right now than to just spend some quiet time with his mommy and daddy.


End file.
